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Stoglin Leads Maryland Past Wake Forest, 82-60

during their first round game of 2012 ACC Men's Basketball Conferene Tournament at Philips Arena on March 8, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia.

ATLANTA (AP) — As the ACC’s leading scorer, Terrell Stoglin was miffed to be excluded from the all-ACC first team released by the conference’s media this week.

Stoglin took advantage of his first postseason opportunity to show he ranks with the Atlantic Coast Conference’s top players.

Stoglin scored 25 points, including nine straight in a decisive 20-4 run to open the second half, and Maryland ran past Wake Forest 82-60 on Thursday in the lopsided opening game of the ACC tournament.

The sophomore guard added seven rebounds, four assists and two steals to his strong all-around game. It was his 21st game with 20 or more points this season.

“I’m always going to have a chip on my shoulder, but once the voting came out I had a bigger one,” said Stoglin, who was an
all-ACC second-team selection.

Maryland (17-14) will play No. 1 seed North Carolina in Friday’s first quarterfinal game. The Tar Heels swept two regular-season
games against Maryland.

Stoglin said Maryland coach Mark Turgeon talked to him on the plane ride to Atlanta “about being a better teammate.”

He said that meant “just doing the little things that end up being big,” including team defense and rebounding.

“That’s something I think I did today,” Stoglin said.

Stoglin had plenty of help.

Freshman Nick Faust had a career-high 19 points and James Padgett had 10 for Maryland, which led 79-50 before pulling its
starters.

“That’s the best, most complete game we’ve played all year,” Turgeon said. “We defended. We rebounded. We executed. We shared the ball. Nick has really been playing well for about three weeks and took it to another level today. He really defended and made some shots.”

With a 44-28 advantage in points in the paint and an 18-7 edge in fast-break points, Maryland made 54.4 percent of its shots from the field.

“They came out and hit us hard,” said Wake Forest coach Jeff Bzdelik. “In the second half, inside especially, they just wore on
us.”

Wake Forest (13-18) finished a disappointing second season under Bzdelik after winning only four ACC games in the regular season.

Bzdelik called three timeouts in the first nine minutes of the second half but couldn’t find a way to stop the Terrapins.

Travis McKie had 22 points to lead the Demon Deacons, who lacked balance in their scoring. Three players combined for all but eight points.

Nikita Mescheriakov had 16 points before fouling out with 7:12 remaining. C.J. Harris had 14 points.

“I think the effort was there,” Harris said. “We felt like we were going in the right direction. Today, we started off pretty well in the first half. I had full confidence that we were going to come out in the second half. … It just wasn’t there.”

Wake Forest led 28-27 late in the first half before Stoglin’s basket capped a 9-0 run that helped give Maryland a 36-31 lead at
halftime. The Terrapins pulled away in the opening minutes of the second half.

Stoglin, who averages 21.2 points, had two 3-pointers and hit three free throws when fouled on another 3-point attempt in the
20-4 run, which gave the Terrapins a 56-35 lead.

Maryland is the only team other than Duke and North Carolina to win the tournament since 1997, but the Terrapins are a longshot as the No. 8 seed.

The Terrapins, who won the 2004 tournament, appeared energized for the tournament after closing the regular season with three
straight losses.

“You could say the new floor got us excited,” said Turgeon of the Philips Arena setting.

Harris had 13 points in the first half, including a late 3-pointer that ended the 9-0 run for Maryland.

Led by the super-quick and aggressive Stoglin, the Terrapins ran at every opportunity and had a 12-5 edge in fast-break points in
the first half.